Staff Reporter

JOHANNES Swartbooi, a 50-year-old man who was convicted of killing his 33-year-old pregnant wife, Dorothea Riekert, in their home in Aus in December 2014, has been sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment by High Court judge Claudia Claasen.

Swartbooi faced a count of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, after killing Riekert during the night of 24 to 25 December 2014 by stabbing her six times and kicking her in the face while she was lying in bed.

Riekert was transported to a local clinic and thereafter to a hospital in Lüderitz, where she died on 27 December 2014 due to immense blood loss.

At the time of the murder, the accused and the deceased had been married for seven years and had five children. The youngest child was aged three, and the child that followed was six years old and in pre-school at the time of the incident. The couple also had three teenage children aged 13, 16 and 18 years, respectively.

Judge Claasen said that although Swartbooi tendered a guilty plea and admitted to the murder — a sign that he accepts responsibility for his actions — the court does not construe it as tantamount to unequivocal and genuine remorse by the accused.

“The accused’s evidence in chief fell short of him offering an outright apology and full expression of remorse. It did not speak of the plight of his children or the broader family, but rather of his own hurt caused by the loss of his wife. Furthermore, the details of what really moved the accused to act in this manner remained minimal; thus, it cannot be said that the accused has fully taken the court into his confidence,” Claasen said.

She added that a post-mortem of the deceased, Riekert, recorded that out of the six wounds, there were two deeper wounds: one that penetrated the right thoracic cavity at a depth of 60 mm, and one on the left side of the neck that penetrated into the external jugular vein at a depth of 40 mm.

“These wounds demonstrate the brutal and vicious attack on the deceased,” the judge said, adding that there is a high incidence of femicide in the country, which is a cause for deep societal concern.

“It leaves behind countless victims, mostly minor children, who have no one else but elderly grandparents to try and pick up the pieces. It results in emotional and psychological trauma, the shadows of which may follow the victims and stifle their progress further in life. The court has to avenge the outrage by women and society at large at this plague by the imposition of a deterrent sentence,” the judge said.

She concluded that the gravity of the offence and the legitimate interests of society outweigh the extenuating factors, and that a lengthy custodial sentence cannot be escaped.

Photo: Contributed

The post Man sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment for murder of his pregnant wife appeared first on Informanté.